S 536 Introduced – Cybersecurity Expertise

Last week Sen. Reed (D,RI) introduced S 536, the Cybersecurity Disclosure Act of 2017. The bill would require the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) to establish rules requiring companies to list board members with cybersecurity expertise on annual reports. This is nearly the same as S 2410 that Reed introduced in the 114^th Congress.

Differences from Earlier Bill

There are two detectable, but relatively insignificant differences between S 536 and S 2410. The first is that S 536 adds a definition of ‘NIST’ to §2(a). Secondly, S 536 adds a brief reference to NIST Special Publication 800-181 to the discussion {§2(c)} of what should constitute cybersecurity expertise in the SEC regulations.

Moving Forward

While Reed is a senior member of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee to which this bill was assigned for consideration, he was not able to get his earlier bill considered by that Committee in the last session, so it is unlikely that he will be able to do so in this session.

There is nothing in this bill that should draw significant opposition. This bill should be able to pass in Committee if it is brought up.